Hometown Hot Rodding

We often refer to cars that have been through a complete teardown and makeover as "built from the ground up," but this 1981 Camaro takes that term literally. Keith Larson started with a jig bolted to his garage floor and 400 feet of tubing, which he fabbed into a full chassis/cage that became the base for the car. Oh yeah, he'd never welded before, so he learned as he went. It took six years working nights in his garage when he could get to it, but he got it done.

The Camaro uses only two components from Larson's original Z28: the car's cowl/windshield structure, and the nose. He fabricated the interior panels from aluminum and the exterior panels (yes, every single body panel) from aluminum and sheetmetal with help from some friends at Performance Bodies in Cedar Falls, Iowa. The suspension is all race car, complete with adjustable corners, a Frankland quick-change rear, and an exhaust system he designed to run through the side panels of the car to dump just forward of the rear wheels. The coolest part of the story, though, is that Larson still drives this beast on the street!

2/3

1964 Chevy II
Zachary Hall
Blountville, TN

Zachary Hall was officially born in the wrong generation, and we mean that in the best way possible. While most 18-year-olds we know are into modified late-models, or perhaps muscle cars, Hall's project is a 1964 Chevy II straight out of the late 1960s drag race/custom scene. Check out the straight-axle from Speedway Motors with the appropriate nose-up attitude, the Halibrand slots in the rear, the spoke front wheels, and the way bitchin red window tint. This thing has the gasser look nailed. We imagine it's not a slouch when Hall stands on it either since under the scoop is a dual-quad tunnel-ram intake atop a built 350ci small-block paired with a Turbo 350 three-speed automatic trans. Oh, by the way, this is Hall's daily driver. The Chevy II was a father/son project, which is just proof to us that some dads are raising their kids right!